Gods and Monsters
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: The prince fought valiantly. He slayed the dragon. The princess cried for days. She loved that dragon. : Lana Del Rey song. Diavora. Non-bestiality.
1. (once upon a time)

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Maleficent and Lana Del Rey's song "Gods and Monsters" are not mine.**

I'm thinking this story will be five chapters at most. Probably less, though. Short and sweet which is just the way I like it :)

**"You be the prince, Phillip, and I'll be the princess."**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**i. once upon a time.  
**

[-]

She's seven and wears a crown of wildflowers upon her head. "You be the prince, Phillip, and I'll be the princess," she tells her best friend as they play in the cliff-side meadow by her cottage.

"All right," he agrees easily. He would do anything for Aurora. "Do you want me to slay some dragons for you?"

"Is that what princes do?"

Phillip nods with all the sincerity of an eight year old who wants to protect his princess from harm. He picks up a nearby stick and pretends it is his sword. "No harm will come to you, Princess Aurora," he vows and slashes the air as he vanquishes the imaginary dragons. "Not when you have me to protect you."

"Only the mean, evil dragons!" she amends her original request as she watches with wide eyes as he stabs and rakes the air. "Don't hurt them, Phillip."

"Not even to save you?"

She bites her lip indecisively. "Okay," she tells him. "But only if you absolutely _have_ to." She dances around the meadow as she enjoys the late afternoon sunshine. "I'm not a damsel in distress," Aurora tells him matter-of-factly. "I can protect myself, too."

He smiles. "I know," he says, his brown eyes soft and reassuring. "You're brave and scary."

"Scary!" Aurora collapses into a fit of giggles upon hearing that adjective. "Me?"

Phillip indulges her. He makes an absurdly frightened face and pretends to cower in fear. "Eek!"

"You squeaked!" Aurora giggles harder. "I made you squeak!"

"So you did," he grins, relaxing his face into his typical easy-going smile.

Aurora rolls through the grass and wildflowers towards him. "Race you back to the cottage," she dares him with an impish gleam in her cerulean eyes.

"You're on," he replies. He scrambles to a standing position so that she does not have an unfair advantage over him.

"On you mark, get set – hey! Phillip, you're cheating! I didn't say 'go', yet!"

"It's not cheating unless you get caught!" he laughs, his voice already growing fainter as he puts more distance between Aurora and himself.

She shakes some of the grass blades out of her blonde ringlets and then chases after him. "Phillip!" Aurora yells. "Not fair!"

"You're just mad because you didn't do it first!"

She laughs because he's right and he knows it. Aurora dashes through the forest and the undergrowth, keeping his chestnut hair in sight at all times lest she became lost. The cottage isn't too far away, now.

Overhead, a midnight black crow squawks as he flies and keeps pace with the little girl who runs with the flowers streaming down her hair.

[-]


	2. ii

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: This is ch2 2.0**

No, your eyes have not deceived you: I really did post a new chapter. Get excited. xoxo

**"Aren't you a pretty bird?"**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**ii.**

[-]

Aurora's curious about the world around her. She doesn't know why but she has this strange feeling that there is so much more to life than her tiny cottage hidden away in the woods. After her day in the meadow with Phillip, she continuously asks her aunts about what lies beyond her meadow and the forest's edge. For the most part, they give her vague and cryptic answers before changing the subject. At dinner, however, she manages to glean a few morsels of information from her aunts.

"So," Aurora begins. She continues to casually ask about the outside world in between bites of what her aunts call "faerie food". "What's it like where you're from?"

"Oh, there's all sorts of wonderful things!" Aunt Flittle says before Aunt Knotgrass has the chance to elbow her.

"Castles and beasties and – " Aunt Thistletwit is silenced by Aunt Knotgrass's hand over her mouth.

"Nothing, dearie," Aunt Knotgrass says with a tight smile. "There's nothing at all."

x

She waits for Phillip to come by the next afternoon and even finds a few sticks for him to use to slay dragons. She wants to tell him about her aunts' odd behaviour and what they could possibly mean by it. Perhaps he'd even like to go explore and search for answers with her.

He doesn't come. Not today or the day after or the day after that day.

"I guess princes only exist in the storybooks," she sighs mournfully, twirling one of the sticks in her right hand. It hurts her naive, trusting heart that the one person she thought she could count on turned out to be as callous as everyone else.

A bird chirps as he flies down from the treetops to land on the split-rail fence Aurora is leaning on. Her bare toes wriggle in the dirt and she props her chin up using her left arm. "Aren't you a pretty bird?" she smiles upon seeing the glossy-feathered crow.

He warbles his appreciation and ducks his head underneath one of his wings.

"And shy, too!" Aurora laughs. "No need to be afraid of me, pretty bird. I won't hurt you."

The crow's head peeps out as if he's determining the merit of her words. He hesitantly hops closer to her. Aurora has one finger stretched out to pet the feathers on the top of his silky head when:

"Rory! Dinner time!" Aunt Thistletwit calls from inside the cottage.

Aurora's face falls in disappointment and brings back her outstretched hand. "Goodbye, pretty bird," she bids adieu in a sad, wistful tone. Aurora twirls her stick as if it were a magic wand. "I wish you were human. You wouldn't leave me, would you?" She nods ruefully and wiggles her fingers in goodbye. "I hope you come back, pretty bird," she tells him before dashing into her cottage where her aunts are waiting impatiently for her.

[-]


	3. iii

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: This is ch3 2.0**

Please come join Melody's "Once Upon a Time," a Disney challenge and competition forum :) www dot fanfiction dot net/forum/Once-Upon-A-Time/151639/

Thank you to the readers and reviewers. I heart you, beasties.

**"You can come back tomorrow. Everything will be the same."**

**Gods and Monsters**

**iii.**

[-]

Phillip doesn't stop by to play with her again. Aurora considers asking her aunts if she can go check up on him – perhaps he got into a scuffle with an actual dragon and that's why he hasn't come over in so long! – but in the end, she never does go ask her aunts if she can pop on over to his cottage to make sure all is all right with him.

It is no matter. Aurora has moved on from pining after her lost friend: her crow has visited her every afternoon since the first day they met. The bird has lost his initial shyness and likes to sing a merry tune for her to marvel at. He has such a lovely voice and Aurora often tells him so, much to his pleasure. Everyday, he has a new melody to chirp and share with her. She likes to think that he composes the four-bar melodies just for her.

Aurora leads her crow to the meadow one afternoon when the leaves are raining down from the sky and forming burning constellations on the ground. It's the first time she has dared to venture back to her sacred meadow after hers and Phillip's friendship faded away like dewdrops on morning grass. She can hardly fathom the endless cliff-side fields are the same from her memories. Her heart beats like a hummingbird's wings inside of her ribcage and her breath comes in startled gasps.

"Look, pretty bird," she tells her crow in a voice wispier than the clouds overhead. "I'm finally home."

He trills her favourite melody in response and circles the field a few times. Aurora shields her eyes from the autumn sun and watches him, slightly envious of his limitless freedom.

"Be careful!" she cautions him. "Don't fly too close to the sun - you'll burn your wings!"

He returns back to Earth - back to her - and flutters hesitantly near her shoulders. Her windblown golden hair reminds him of the sun's rays; he thinks to himself that he wouldn't mind getting too close to this sun. Aurora interprets his hesitancy in a more literal fashion, though, and reaches out a hand, one finger crooked for him to perch on. Once he has done so, she slowly brings him closer to her heart and strokes the black velvet feathers on the top of his head. He lazily blinks and listens to the steady thrum of her heart.

"You know what I want to do?" she asks, an eager lilt of anticipation quickening her words. "Let's play Hide-And-Seek! I'll hide first, all right?"

Her crow indulges her and is already flitting away and covering his eyes with his wings. She smiles and dashes off to find the perfect hiding spot. They play a few rounds - he's a much better player at this game than Aurora - and the sun watches over them as it descends closer to the horizon. It's in the stealthy amber of twilight when Aurora began another turn as seeker.

"Three . . . four . . . " she mumbles underneath her breath, eyes dutifully shut tight.

"Rory!" her aunts yell as they blunder through the forest. "It's getting late!"

"Seven . . . eight . . . nine . . . " she continues, not wanting to end the game just yet.

"There you are, Aurora," Aunt Knotgrass exclaims upon finding her. "Time to go home, dearie."

Aurora's eyes pop open. "No, not yet! I'm not - I haven't – "

"Shh, love," Aunt Flittle soothes. "You can come back tomorrow. Everything will be the same."

But it wasn't, for when Aurora rushed back to the meadow the next afternoon, her crow was still in hiding. He never returned.

[-]


	4. iv

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer:  
**

Babes, there are 50+ of you following this silly little story. You all make me so happy. Diavora? More like DiaFOREVAH.

To the reviewer about The Little Mermaid: I love you to the moon and back.

And I miscounted earlier - sorry! This is looking like it will be a little longer than five chapters. I don't know, honestly. I'm just pulling all of this out of my ass. All of the cliffhangers and angst will resolve fairly quickly within this short story, so don't worry too much if I throw you a curveball.

Theorise and draw parallels and hypothesise and Einstein away - I love it when you talk plot line to me ;)

**"Of course," he says simply. "You're my best friend."**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**iv.  
**

[-]

"Auntie Knotgrass? Do you know how to whistle?"

When her aunt confirms that yes, she does indeed know how to whistle, Aurora begs her aunt to teach her. Once she has mastered the art of puckering her lips and carrying a tune, Aurora goes out to her meadow every day and whistles the melody fragments her pretty bird had sung to her all those days ago.

He still doesn't return.

x

Phillip stops by on a sunny summer morning. "It's my birthday tomorrow," he announces to her as if they hadn't spent the last few months not talking to each other. Aurora reminds herself that it was all his fault that their friendship fell to pieces, but then she remembers that she mustn't hold grudges or harbour resentment towards others.

"Yeah," she says, not understanding what he wants her to do with this information.

He smiles brightly. Aurora notices that he looks different. It's a good different. But she finds herself studying him and looking at this familiar stranger for the traces of her friend who promised to slay dragons for her.

"I'm having a celebration," - his eyes twinkle and Aurora remembers how the stars looked dim in comparison - "because it's not every day that you turn ten," - and then Aurora thinks of how cold she is on the nights when there are no stars outside - "and I would really like it if you were there."

She blinks. She thinks she hears an invitation in his words but his other pompous words and arrogant tone cloak what he is trying to say. "Huh?"

"I want you to come celebrate my birthday with me at the jousting tournament tomorrow." Phillip pauses and then remembers his manners. "Please," he says to soften his demand.

The tournaments are such a grown-up thing and Aurora's eyes widen excitedly that he chose her to attend it with him. "Really, Phillip? You mean it?"

"Of course," he says simply. "You're my best friend."

And just like that, their friendship had been repaired.

x

"Absolutely not," her aunts said when Aurora told them about Phillip's invitation. "You're not allowed to set one foot near that castle."

Lately, her aunts have been telling her she can't do pretty much _any_thing that involves the world beyond their little cottage in the woods.

"Why not?" she challenges them. Aurora has never dared to be so bold before, and it takes the four of them by surprise.

"Because we said so," Aunt Thistletwit says firmly.

"End of discussion," Aunt Flittle adds and leaves the room with a dramatic exit.

"Really, dearie, it's for your own good," is Aunt Knotgrass' response.

Aurora frowns but does not argue. Her thoughts, however, are not placated by her aunts' breezy remarks; instead, she's even more frustrated and curious about their decision to keep her locked away in the woods. Because isn't that what they are doing? Hiding her away so that no one could find her?

She wonders what it is they could possibly be so afraid of.

[-]


	5. v

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer:**

Way too many re-writes later, and here we are with a new chapter. I apologise for the wait.

**"Is that who you are, pretty bird?"**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**v.**

[-]

Aurora has to decline Phillip's invitation, much to both of their disappointment. "I can't leave the forest," she explains.

He stares at her curiously. "Why not? Are you magicked?"

"Magicked?"

"You know, bewitched. Like you had a spell cast upon you, or something. I read about it in my father's alchemy books. Some of the people in the book got on the bad side of an evil faerie queen, and she cursed them."

"Oh," she says. If Phillip read it in his father's book, it must be true. Phillip knew everything – something he liked to boast about often – and his father knew even more. "I don't think I'm magicked. I've never met an evil faerie queen."

Phillip eyes her critically. "You're probably right. You're too nice and pretty; no one could possibly hate you."

She blushes at his compliment. The two children are quiet for a moment, lost in their thoughts. At the sound of his father's horse's whinny, Phillip shifts his weight from foot to foot and bids his farewell.

"I guess I better get going, then. It's a long ride to the castle and the joust will be starting soon."

Aurora nods. "Have fun," she wishes him. "And have a lovely birthday, Phillip. Will you tell me all about it?"

"Of course I will, silly," Phillip grins. He waves and then is off to see the world beyond their little forest.

Once he is out of sight, Aurora slumps down against the fence post. She feels like crying. It's not fair. She wants to go with him and see and explore the lands far, far away. She wants to see the castle and the joust and everything else besides trees and a grassy meadow. She wants to meet other people and taste different foods and go to masquerade balls like the princesses and ladies do in her fantasy books.

The air is split by a piercing shriek from Aunt Flittle. "Aaahh! Get away! Shoo!" Her sharp exclamations are punctuated by the sound of crashing pots and pans inside the cottage.

"Rory! Come quick!" Aunt Thistletwit calls out.

Aurora is already in motion before her aunt calls her to help. Her previous melancholy fades away as her heart rate spikes and she rushes into the cottage. "What? What is it?"

She enters the cottage to find a disastrous scene awaiting her. The kitchen chairs and table are overturned, dishes strewn about and broken all over the floor. A pie lays splattered face-down, and various liquids stain every available surface. Her aunts dance around the kitchen, hands out-stretched as they fall over each other to chase and curse and shriek a familiar black raven.

"Pretty bird!" Aurora exclaims.

"You know this scoundrel?" Aunt Knotgrass asks crossly.

The raven settles down on top of the upturned and squawks indignantly at her words. Aurora nods and scoops him up, cuddling him protectively. "He's a friend," she says.

"Friend or not, get him out of here!" Aunt Flittle says. "Look at the ruin he's caused."

Aurora defends her bird. "He didn't mean any harm, Auntie. Look at him. Isn't he precious?" She pets his head and he closes his eyes in content.

The three aunts glance at each other. "You have to admit he has a certain amount of charm," Aunt Thistletwit says.

Aurora nods. "He can sing, too!" As if on cue, he warbles out his four-note melody.

"Oh my," Aunt Flittle agrees. "How lovely and exquisite."

Aunt Knotgrass, who realises her decision will be overruled no matter what, sighs. "All right, all right. You may keep him, Rory, if you wish. But you're completely responsible for him – no more of this mess and tearing up the cottage apart. You keep that bird behaved."

Aurora squeals happily and hugs her aunts. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I won't let you down."

Aunt Knotgrass let out a sceptical noise but didn't comment further as she started cleaning up the kitchen. Aunt Thistletwit eyes the raven and asks, "Well? Rory, what shall his name be?"

"Diaval," Aurora proclaims. She taps his beak and he nips at her playfully. "Is that who you are, pretty bird?"

He chirps his agreement and shakes his wings out.

"Don't you dare fly away and leave me all alone again, Diaval," she tells him as the memories of his absence replay in her mind. "With Phillip gone, you're the only friend I have left."

[-]


End file.
